


It's Under Control

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-25
Updated: 2012-07-25
Packaged: 2017-11-10 16:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/468450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The arc reactor is supposed to be indestructible- or at least as close to indestructible as you can get- but apparently the Teenage Mutant Freak Thingamajigs have something that can break it, because there’s a burning bullet hole in the center of his arc reactor, and yeah, that’s not good.</p><p>Or five times Tony saves Steve and one time Steve saves Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Under Control

1. 

 

“Pull the red lever!” Tony yells again, but the wind steals his words and he's not sure if Steve can hear him; he can barely hear himself.  _Crap, crap, crap._

“Gimme a second!”

“Now!”

The engine’s going too fast. He needed to get out yesterday - last week, last month, before he ever told Fury he wanted to be in this stupid band of misfit heroes because, newflash: this sucks. And they all hate him anyway, so why should he - he's reminded this is not the place to ruminate on self-hate when there's a whoosh and a smack from beside him; a bird had gotten sucked into the propeller. Tony doesn't even have time to be sorry for the poor thing - and, come on, what had it really done wrong? - because the blades are still picking up speed, constantly accelerating. Their whirring is almost a white noise, now, so fast it's constant, and Tony's suit is exceptional, yes, but even it can't go as fast as the motor on the fucking Quinjet.

Why did he design this thing for them again?

“Oh, no.”

Pressed back up against the blade, his fingers, only a second ago cemeted on it's edge - and okay, cemeted is a bit of an exaggeration because really, Tony was hanging on for dear life and his hold was rather flimsy, but it's a death-grip, that's gotta count for something - let go, almost of their own accord. For a split second, Tony feels like the world hangs in slow motion - but it's a really short split second, because the next thing he knows it, he's taking a deep breath, and then he's thrown under the engine. 

He's bouncing around. That's not good for the suit, Tony knows, can hear it in the dings and scratches of metal on metal, and it's also not good for him, because he can feel the bruises forming. That's not the important part right now, though, because he can deal with being a little bruised, but he can't deal with being a minced mash of flesh and metal and that's what he's going to be in a moment is Steve doesn't _pull the goddamned lever_ - 

“Cap!”

Right on time, like a scene out of a movie, the engine begins to slow. It's significant but still barely enough to let Tony out, and he has to manuver himself into a dropping position, brusing himself up further in the process. He free-falls for a second after he finally clears the blades, but then he comes back to himself enough to get control of his suit. It stutters for a moment, hissing and popping, but it seems to be okay for the time being, but - oh shit, was that a gunshot?

That wasn't just a gunshot, that was machine-gun fire. And it's not coming from inside the facility either, where Loki and his minions of highjacked SHIELD agents and enemies are making swiss cheese out of everyone. No, it's coming from outside, over by the - The realization hits Tony suddenly, and immediately he kicks his repulsors into high-gear, shooting towards Steve and the red lever that _obiviously_ someone is keeping him from, because he may be a righteous ass but he wouldn't try to kill Tony - 

And yes, there they are: two men clad in black and bulletproof vests, shooting at him. Tony's fairly sure that, while the serum does work wonders - including but not limited to magical jawlines and deadly accuracy with a shield - it doesn't make you bulletproof. 

He streamlines himself against the wind, and even as the shooter turns toward him, wide-eyed, spraying bullets his direction that bounce back of the armor, he hits him, hard. It knocks him down and sends the gun spilling from his hands in the same swift movement.

Tony turns his head enough to see Steve's expression: he looks stunned and out of breath, and he's looking down at the shooter instead of Tony. Tony lets his head sag back, breath coming heavy in his lungs.

Clearly he wasn’t as worthless as Steve thought.

 

2.

 

Tony would think that, with Loki gone, he might get some peace and quiet around here.

Apparently not. He's got a whole new slew of things to think about - the rebuild of the Stark Tower, relocation of his bots and materials to New York, trying to maintain a civil relationship with Pepper despite their recent break-up. And, okay, none of those things are particularaly difficult, but some of them are awkward - namely the way Pepper smiles at Happy when she thinks Tony's not looking, and kisses him on the cheek when they get out of the car and Tony's looking down at his phone, only he's not really looking down at his phone. But she can't see that, because he's wearing sunglasses, and so he watches her with Happy, and it's sweet, and he wants to be happy for her, but it's just - awkward.

But, point being: that's all kinda hard but it could be conductive to peace, if Tony chose to make it so. His life has been busier then this, right? And he'd called it peace then. Only that's not all he's got to think about, because one day Fury decides the Avengers are too much work to keep up with at SHIELD or maybe he decides that Tony needs to be watched - Tony doesn't know. He just knows that one day, they show up on his doorstep with duffel bags and knives and cases of Poptarts, and call this their new home.

And, okay: it's not necessarily as bad as he'd thought.

But he's still got to watch out for them, and that's a pain. It's like having three new kids running around - because Bruce and Natasha are more then capable of taking care of themselves and refraining from wrecking havoc, but the other three? Not so much. And, okay, maybe Natasha handles Clint more then Tony does, and Jane has got Thor under control - but Steve? He's really got no one, and since Pepper called him in the middle of the night in Paris and told him that he get over himself and help Steve because he'd just called Pepper in the middle of the night to ask what the numbers on the toaster mean and really, she liked the guy, he was sweet and chivalrous and charming, but some things? Were just too much.

That's how Tony gets the job of babysitting Steve. Really, it's not that bad, most of the time - Steve is a grown man, and he knows how to feed and bathe and clothe himself (though sometimes Tony wished he needed help with those last two) but he's still new to this century. And so he doesn't understand some things - it's understandable, really. Tony figures that if you sent him a hundred years in the future - well, no, he'd understand everything fine, but that's because he's been dreaming about that kind of tech since he was a kid, but he guesses there will be some weird stuff there, like they'll probably have sucked it up and given queers and women equal rights, and stopped making people pay fifty-thousand dollars a year for education because, really? Tony's rich, but most people aren't, and most people can't afford that.

Okay, point: Steve doesn't get some things, things like Hot Pockets and tasers and, yes, toasters: but also busy road traffic that doesn't just stop for you if you want to dash across.

And he swears, he's not an idiot - it's just that it's changed a lot, since he was younger, and he knows cars go faster but he doesn't know they go this fast, not now. And so he reaches the corner right when the light flicks green but he figures, hey, I can make it across as long as I sprint, I did it before. Only he can't do it, not now, and he has his headphones in as he jogs and so he doesn't see or hear the blaring bus with it's horn, and really, Steve might think Tony's an asshole with ego issues and a refusal to sacrifice himself, but he better be damn glad Tony happened to be walking by with his briefcase suit and some reporter hanging off his arm because, if he wasn't? Captain America might be mained now.

LIke, really glad. Tony's only half-in the suit, too! Briefcase-Jarvis only has time to start putting it on him before the bus gets too close and Tony has to simultaneously jump forward and ignite the repulsors (because that had been his plan, swoop in, pick him up, yada yada yada, he's a hero and the entire NYC public gets to see Captain America being carried bridal-style but Iron Man, wouldn't that be fun?) to push Steve out of the way.

And get himself hit in the process.

Luckily, the tip of the bus engine hits his legs and stops, suddenly - seeing that it's hitting Captain America and Iron Man, shit - and his legs are the parts of his body encased in armor. Still, thoug: it sends him skidding along the pavement, and the roadburn from that is going to last for days. Seriously, Tony needs to get his act together and come up with a way to make a dermal regenerator. It would save him a lot of trouble. Maybe he can pair up with Bruce on it. 

“Tony!”

"‘m okay, ‘m okay,” Tony says, almost distractedly, pushing himself up and shaking his head back and forth, glancing around at the stopped traffic. He's still thinking about Star Trek tech. “We should probably get out of the way.

 

3.

 

Tony's not naive: it's not like he had expected evil to just _stop_ after Loki invaded. But, honestly? He hadn't expected it to come back so quickly, either.

Well. Maybe it’s not back _that_ quickly. But, come on, Tony's life has been super-speed-super-hero for, like, two years now. Maybe it's three. Doesn't he deserve at least that long off? Not just two months. It's way too soon for Tony's liking.

Anyway: their rebound evil is a musty old man who calls himself the Janitor. Really, he should be easy to take down - come on, the _Janitor?_ it doesn't matter what your past jobs were, that's not an acceptable villian name, clearly he's an amateur - except he’s got a suit, one not unlike Tony’s but it’s made from light itself, and Tony doesn’t really get how that’s possible but he goes with it. 

Going with it doesn't really work, though. Halfway through the battle, Natasha and Clint are down with burns, and Hulk is still trying to penetrate the light armor with his fists - a technique Steve deemed 'useless' five minutes into the fight - and Thor is still hitting it with lightning, but nothing's working.

Normally, Tony might do some research, some recon, try to figure out what elements his suit is actually made from, because there's no way it can be bent light waves, they just don't do that, but JARVIS is down, at least in the suit, and so Tony’s pretty much worthless. He tries to help Hulk, briefly, but Hulk growls, “Hulk got him,” so Tony leaves him at it. It may be 'useless' but it doesn't seem to be tiring Hulk out much, so it's not like any harm's being done.

Unfortunately: that can be taken literally.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that the rest of the human team has renounced their usefulness and taken the rightful step down, Steve, goddamn idiot that he is, is still trying to actually do something. Of course, he's not - because he sort of relys on brute strength too, no matter how much he tries to deny it, and if Hulk can crush it with brute strength, nobody can. Really, out there being useless he's just a giant flag-like target, with no metal armor or enhanced skin thick enough to protect him from bullets.

The Janitor- and, seriously, every time Tony thinks that name it sounds dumber- seems to realize Steve is the most vulnerable one there, because he is not as dumb as his name, and as Steve runs forward towards the Hulk, he reaches out a hand and shoots a bolt of light.

In hindsight, Tony will be unable to tell you how he get there fast enough; he just knows that one second, he was watching Steve about to get hit, and the next, he and Steve are rolling away from the a burning hole in the ground where Steve’s toes used to be.

“You alright?” Tony asks once they’ve slowed to a stop near the edge of the alley. It's a little awkward, because Steve's sort of laying on top of him, and their arms are sort of wrapped around each other, but Steve isn't making to move. 

“Yeah,” Steve says, breathing heavily. “Thanks.”

“Hey, don’t thank me. I was just trying to keep my boyfriend safe. Not quite ready for the sex to stop.”

Steve blushes deeply and Tony smirks at him, then realizes a second later that Steve can’t see his face, and says, “You stay here with Nat and Clint, alright? I’ll take care of the big boys over there,” and then there's the complicated getting-out-of-an-awkward-position-shimmy, and then Tony gives a pointed look and a point (because Steve can't see his face, right) to Natasha and Clint, and then he runs straight back towards the Hulk.

Sometimes Steve wonders why he’s dating Tony Stark.

This isn’t one of those times.

 

4.

 

The next time it happens is a little less dramatic and a lot more worrying.

It's actually a really complicated thing - there this stuff with Strange, and then something about a space-time-continum, and something about how it's freaking the fuck out of a bunch of Japanese karate prodigy's genetic's, and now they're five-eyed monsters roaming the dramatic undergrounds streets of New York, and - well. Suffice to say: one of the mutant ninja girls gets her hands on some of the serum - and Tony has no fucking clue how she got it, it literally makes zero sense in the already super-confusing train of events that led her here, but she did - and somehow manages to inject some into Steve as they fight. 

Really, Tony doesn't know what he should've expected Steve's reaction to be, but whatever it was, it wasn't for Steve to double over, groaning.

“Tony, I - I don’t feel very good.” And that more then anything scares Tony, because he sounds like the skinny momma's boy he used to be, and it brings up bad memories for Steve so he always goes out of his way to never, ever sounds like that. 

Hulk tears the girl in half - which may be a bit much, but Hulk’s protective. And honestly, Tony doesn't care how young or old she may be: if he didn't already have enough blood on his hands, he might do the same. But by the time the girl’s dead, Tony’s already halfway to the SHIELD hospital with Steve cradled in his arms like a child as he murmurs, “It’s okay, Steve, it’s okay,” and tries to ignore the horrible feeling he gets in his gut when he looks at Steve’s pasty skin, the scared look on his face.

Nothing really gets better, even after they get to the hospital. The doctors there have no idea what’s going on: Steve’s constantly nauseous, he’s always got a fever, and he sleeps for so long Tony worries that he’s not going to wake up for another seventy years. He stays by Steve's bedside the entire time, holding Steve’s hand as he moans into his pillow, drifts in and out of conciousness,  and refuses to let Tony call for a nurse.

Finally, after two days of this and after Steve’s fallen asleep again and the nurses assure Tony he won’t be up for another fifteen hours - at _least -_ he goes back to his lab and spends the time examining his father’s research, the records of the experiment, Steve’s file from the hospital. He’s not a doctor, and this isn’t exactly his area of expertise, but he thinks he’s figured out the cure. Bruce helps him put together the serum and they inject it into Steve’s arm while he sleeps. 

Steve wakes up an hour later. He blinks his eyes blearily, looks around and says, “Tony?”

Tony’s so relieved he could cry, but instead he says, “Of course it’s me, assclown,” and when Steve absolutely-does-not-pout, Tony leans forward and kisses him, long and firm. He pulls back and Steve makes a noise of protest in the back of his throat. Tony smirks. “Come on, Cap, let’s go home.”

"Don’t call me Cap,” Steve grumbles, and it just makes Tony smile wider - the relief pounding through his veins almost makes him lightheaded.

“Oh, you’re back to normal, alright.”

 

5.

 

Tony goes for a two-day trip to Las Vegas - and it’s kind of a business trip because he doesn’t fuck anyone while he’s there but he doesn’t really do any work either - and when he comes back he finds Natasha with her legs wrapped around Steve’s neck as they wrestle on the floor and Clint watches helplessly.

“What’s going on?” Tony asks, dropping his suit jacket over the sofa and raising an eyebrow. 

“Nat thinks Coulson cheated on her with me,” Clint says morosely. When Tony gives him a strange look he hastens to add, “He didn’t, though!”

“But why is she beating up Steve?” Tony asks.

"Oh.” Clint shrugs. “He tried to defend me.”

"Okay,” Tony says, rolling up his sleeves and stepping in, and trying to swallow his ever-present fear of Natasha, since she stabbed him in the neck at a donut shop and tried to sell his kidneys on the black market. (He doesn't care what she says; that's totally what she was planning to do.) “Nat?”

"What?” she hisses, glaring at him, and he swallows hard. He has witnesses, now. And besides, he could buy his own kidneys back off the black market, if he needed.

“I know you’re pissed at Steve - and that’s totally fine with me! Seriously. But we’re kind of getting married next Saturday and I think it’d put a bit of a damper on the wedding if he was dead.”

Natasha huffs, and looks back down at Steve, head still crushed between her thighs. “You’re lucky your boyfriend’s home,” she says, and then releases him. She gets to her feet smoothly, elegantly, in the way only cats and supermodels can pull off.

“Fiance,” Tony corrects as he pulls Steve to his feet - his face is red and he stumbles. Not so super-modelish. Natasha raises an eyebrow at him. “Never mind, boyfriend’s good.”

"Thanks, Tony,” Steve says gratefully, stretching his neck. It's red, but Tony knows it's not going to bruise - not like he would if Natasha had clamped her thighs around his neck - though if she'd done that to him, he'd probably been less inclined to struggle and more inclined to give her an impromptu blowjob. Maybe. If he wasn't engaged to Steve and she was, like, Pepper, or something, someone who wouldn't kill him for looking at her. 

“Well, I can’t marry you if you’re in a coffin,” Tony says, smiling slightly and undoing the buttons on the top of his shirt as he speaks.

Steve's eyes are drawn to his chest - the tufts of hair sticking out from under his undershirt. Tony smirks, but Steve doesn't see it. "Enjoying the view?"

Once, that might have made Steve blush; it doesn't, now. Now he just sighs. Sometimes Tony misses the blush, but he gets to save it for special occasions now, and he gets to see it  _all over,_ because, as he had gleefully discovered, it extended  _all the way_ down - “I hate you. Really, I do.”

“Aww, you love me,” Tony says, smirking, and leans in and presses a kiss to Steve’s lips.

He pulls back a second later, still smiling at Steve, then turns to Natasha and Clint and says, “So, anybody else want Chinese?”

 

1. 

 

The arc reactor is supposed to be indestructible - or at least as close to indestructible as you can get - but apparently the Teenage Mutant Freak Thingamajigs have something that can break it, because there’s a burning bullet hole in the center of his arc reactor, and yeah _,_ that’s not good.

Dimly, from his position - lying sprawled on the sidewalk with a recently-vacated skyscraper swaying above him, like it's trying to decide whether or not to fall- he's  aware that his breathing has become heavier and hardier, that his heartrate is slowing rapidly, and that the blue light that constantly shines from his chest is fading - and he’s going into cardiac arrest and that’s a pretty big issue too. 

“Tony?”

Tony can barely hear him over the gunshots, the yelling, and the echo of JARVIS' voice from the closed helmet of his suit, his frantic, “The suit is failing, sir, we’re on fifteen percent power, fourteen, thirteen, twelve...”

Tony has always hated countdowns - he's had a lot of them, in his life, countdowns of when his air would run out and he'd drown with their meaty hands on his head presing him down; countdowns to the starts of old-fashioned videos featuring Howard and ancient tech; countdowns of how many lives there are left to save, how many seconds he has to get Pepper out of the blast radius, how many more hits Steve can take to his ribs before one cracks and a shard of bone gets sent straight into his heart. And so, yeah, Tony would tell JARVIS to mute the countdown but he can’t speak. He can’t move at all, really. The suit is slowly collapsing in on him, heavy and dense, and he's counting down his last moments with JARVIS.

And then he realises, somewhat dimly, that Steve is there, Hulk at his back as he covers them both. His face is somewhat blurry through the shaded screen of Tony's armor as the power fades - five percent, four percent, three - “Tony? Tony?”

Tony can’t move to tell him what to do - he needs the suit _off,_ needs it off right now, and as the countdown on the screen dies down to zero he faintly he hears JARVIS say, “The suit needs to be removed, sir,” to Steve. And, really? Thank _god_ for JARVIS. Tony needs to send him a card, or something, some measrure of his appreciation, only he's not sure if he'll make it another minute let alone the three-hundred he'll probably need to formulate an apology and make a card or whatever. Because, yeah, he's a genius, but he sucks at emotions.

And wow: is he seriously spending his last moments thinking about making JARVIS a card? He forces himself to focus. JARVIS will have to forgive him.

Through his dead viewscreen, Tony can see Steve glancing up and down his suit. It's almost like he's looking for a release button - as if Tony were dumb enough to put one of those on the outside, really? - and then he just seems to think, _fuck it,_  before he grabs Tony’s breastplate, and with all the power of a thousand Thor's, pulls the goddamned thing off.

The tearing screech of metal that accompanies it almost makes Tony wince, and Tony would protest Steve destroying it - come on, it’s his _baby,_  it's his legacy, and he doesn't know if he'll have a chance to repair it - but he can’t really move right now, and his lips are sort of numb or frozen or something, and his heart’s barely beating -  and _fuck,_ where’s his spare core?

Steve removes the suit in seconds, ripping it to pieces. Tony gathers his energy and finds himself able to mutter, just loud enough for Steve to hear, “Lab.”

Steve scoops Tony up in his arms, bridal style, and sprints inside. Wow, Tony didn’t know that super-speed was a side-effect of the serum. And Christ, it must be, because Steve was no Bolt before he got shot up, Tony knows that, and this guy can _run_ , and why is Tony thinking about this when he’s dying?

Focus. Right. The world is getting fuzzier and that's getting harder to do, so Steve'll just have to forgive him if his train of thought strays a little bit.

For once, when they reach the workshop, JARVIS doesn’t ask for the code. He just opens the door before Steve, panting, has a chance to slow at the window. 

“Where do I go? Where do I go?” Steve asks frantically, but Tony really doesn’t have breath anymore. He can't answer him. He’s got nothing, no answer to give and no way to give it, and, wow, is this really how it’s going to end? On the somewhat grimy tile floor - he was working on something important, okay, he didn’t have time to be interrupted by the maids - of his lab while Steve freaks out above him?

“Upper right drawer!” JARVIS says, and his voice isn't just laced with worry now, his voice is fucking worry now, and Tony is a little impressed with himself. He didn’t know he'd programmed his personality so well.

Tony zones out for a minute, but when he manages to refocus he realizes that Steve's got it, the rather outdated but still usable version of his core, and _yes,_ Tony is thinking, _shove it in now please_. Steve brings it down to his chest, and it's the right way and everything, but when he tries to put it in it won’t go. For some reason, it just won’t fit, like Tony tweaked the shape of the circle or the size of it just ever so slightly or _something,_  and even as Tony watches the frustration and confusion and fear well in Steve’s eyes, he blacks out.

He doesn’t know how much later it is when he wakes up, but when he does, he knows it is all okay, because the first sensation that hits him is the thrumming of the arc reactor inside his chest, the  blue light of it through his eyelids.

The first thing he sees is Steve, bent over him and looking absolutely _wrecked,_ just destroyed, and are those _tears_ in his eyes?

“Oh, that burns,” Tony mutters, then coughs, and suddenly Steve’s not looking as wrecked, more relieved and a little bit annoyed. Mostly relieved.

“You’re alive,” he says, and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Of course I’m alive, have you met me?” As he speaks he pushes himself up into a sitting position, leaning against his desk. 

“Don’t scare me like that again,” Steve says, and he grabs Tony’s hand, squeezes it.

“Relax, Steve,” Tony says, grunting a little as he straightens. “I’m fine.”

Steve raises his eyebrows. “Oh yeah, you’re fine, which is why you just blacked out for ten minutes.”

“Really? I was out that long?”

Steve nods, looks down at their intertwined hands. “Scared me half to death, too.”

“Steve.” Tony waits until Steve looks up at him. “I’m fine. Seriously. Calm down.”

"Just... don’t do it again.”

“I won’t,” Tony says. “I promise.” He leans in, presses a brief, surprisingly chaste kiss on Steve’s lips, then leans back and, groaning, pushes himself to his feet.

"Alright, Cap, where did you throw the pieces of my suit?”

Steve rolls his eyes and follows Tony. “Don’t call me that. I don’t like it.”

“C’mon!” Tony says, grinning. “Cap’s got a nice ring to it.”

“Call me Cap again and I’ll divorce you,” Steve says.

“You wouldn’t.”

"Try me.”

“Alright, alright,” Tony says, sighing. “No more Cap.”

“Good,” Steve says. “Now lets go see if Hulk’s smashed everyone up yet.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was written while I played Iron Man 2 on repeat for six hours. (Yeah, I know, but I don't have any of the other Avengers movies.) This is my first Avengers fanfiction, so please tell me what you think!


End file.
